Poland Interrupted

Merriam Press World War 2 Fiction Series. Poland Interrupted follows the tumultuous life of Kaz Kowinsky, a boy who comes of age in Krakow following the Great War. When Germany invades at the start of World War II Kaz goes to Gydnia attempting to reach his naval unit but is turned back by German tanks. Then taken prisoner, beaten, and barely escapes with his life. He returns to Krakow where he joins his best friend in the resistance movement. They spy on the Germans, smuggle food and arms to the partisans fighting in the nearby Tatras Mountains, rescue a famous Jewish mathematician from prison, ambush trains. Not all goes as planned. Kaz becomes a fugitive and flees into the Tatras Mountains where he continues to spy on the Germans. Germany is finally pushed back by the allies and slowly retreats from Poland, only to be replaced by Russians who are more brutal than the Germans. Kaz has lost everything and soon realizes that his only hope for survival is to stow away on a ship and flee his beloved country.